Danon, Hotovely to keep their committees

Kadima opts not to "upgrade" to more prestigious committees currently controlled by Likud.

By GIL STERN STERN HOFFMAN
Likud MK Tzipi Hotovely_311 (photo credit: Marc Israel Sellem)
Likud MK Tzipi Hotovely_311
(photo credit: Marc Israel Sellem)
Kadima will retain control over the Knesset’s Science and Technology Committee, rather than upgrade to a committee considered more prestigious, party officials told coalition chairman Ze’ev Elkin (Likud) this week.
The coalition agreement between Likud and Kadima entitles Kadima to three Knesset committees. It has already received control over the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, which will be chaired by MK Ronnie Bar- On, and the Economics Committee, whose head will be chosen later this month.
Elkin offered Kadima to trade the Science and Technology Committee for either of two Likud-controlled committees: The Immigration, Absorption and Diaspora Affairs Committee, headed by MK Danny Danon, or the Committee on the Status of Women, chaired by MK Tzipi Hotovely.
But Science and Technology Committee chairwoman Ronit Tirosh (Kadima), who is close to Kadima party chairman Shaul Mofaz, chose to keep her current committee, which she described as fascinating.
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s loyalists had considered giving Danon’s committee to Kadima, to punish Danon for taking two steps last week that the prime minister did not like.
Danon angered Netanyahu by being the only Likud MK who voted against the coalition agreement with Kadima. He also refused Netanyahu’s request to refrain from running against him for chairman of the Likud convention.